Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050914/ap_on_...nada_auto_talks

TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union will strike against DaimlerChrysler, where up to 2,500 jobs were at risk, if no deal is reached by next Tuesday, union leader Buzz Hargrove said Wednesday.

"I'm not very optimistic at this point," Hargrove told The Canadian Press in an interview after announcing that DaimlerChrysler was the next target in this year's auto contract talks. "The big thing is the demand on jobs that they have, on outsourcing our jobs ... to anywhere in the world that can do it cheaper."

The latest negotiations come after the autoworkers signed a deal with Ford Canada on Monday, a grim agreement that will see 1,100 fewer jobs in Ontario and the shutdown of one Ford factory by the end of a three-year labor contract.

Outsourcing is a major issue between the union and DaimlerChrysler, which wants to spin off some of its Canadian production to save costs in an increasingly competitive North American auto industry. DaimlerChrysler operates assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, northwest of Toronto, as well as parts plants in Windsor.

Hargrove said that in addition to outsourcing, some of the potential job losses would come from DaimlerChrysler's desire to copy Toyota Motor Corp.'s production method, known as "kaizen," or continuous improvement.

"It's a structural change, a cultural change," said CAW chairman Ken Lewenza. "They would like to introduce the Toyota process of building products, which is in smaller teams, empower the workers, supposedly give the workers more responsibility to make decisions.

"We're very nervous about it," Lewenza said. "We're not worried about cultural shifts. We're worried about jobs."

Union leaders pegged potential job losses at about 1,500 in Windsor, about 700 in Brampton, Ontario, and more than 400 at the operations in Etobicoke, also in Ontario, which the union said DaimlerChrysler wants to close.

In a statement released Wednesday, DaimlerChrysler Canada vice president Mark Gendregske said that despite a lot of work ahead, "we are optimistic we can find common ground."

The company declined to comment beyond the release, which said substantial investments by the automaker since the last contract agreement in 2002 allowed Brampton and Windsor to operate three shifts. It said it also created 1,000 new CAW jobs at the Brampton assembly plant — which makes Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum and Dodge Charger vehicles — this year, boosting the head count to 4,200.

Hargrove said he expects the latest talks, which got under way in a Toronto hotel on Wednesday afternoon, to be "tough."

"Chrysler made it very clear to us when we were doing our probing, to try to find out where we could get the best agreement on our issues without a strike, that ... if we didn't accept their demands on outsourcing and (plant) closure that we could not get an agreement with them and they would force the dispute," Hargrove said.

"So we're going to give them the opportunity now to move off of that and try to get a settlement even before the 20th, but failing that there will be a strike," he said.

Windsor-based DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc., with about 12,000 employees, generated revenues of nearly 19.2 billion Canadian dollars ($16.25 billion) last year. That makes it Canada's second-biggest carmaker behind General Motors Canada, which has 22,000 workers and 2004 revenues of 37.1 billion Canadian dollars ($31.4 billion).

Ford Canada had 2004 revenues of 18.1 billion Canadian dollars ($15.3 billion).

Shares of DaimlerChrysler AG rose 19 cents to close at $50.15 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.